Traumatised by an accident that involves something falling from the sky and leaves him eight and a half million pounds richer, our hero spends his time and money obsessively reconstructing and re-enacting memories and situations from his past: a large building with piano music in the distance, the familiar smells and sounds of liver frying and spluttering, lethargic cats lounging on roofs until they tumble off them...But, when this fails to quench his thirst for authenticity, he starts reconstructing more and more violent events, including hold-ups and shoot-outs.
Remainder
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'A masterpiece waiting to happen - again and again and again' -- 3:AM Magazine
'It will remain with you long after you have felt compelled to re-read it' -- Time Out
'a very good novel indeed' -- London Review of Books
'its minatory brilliance calls for classic status' -- The Independent
'It will remain with you long after you have felt compelled to re-read it' -- Time Out
'a very good novel indeed' -- London Review of Books
'its minatory brilliance calls for classic status' -- The Independent
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By S. Lovat
Format:Paperback
Tom McCarthy's Remainder occupies the same territory as Rupert Thompson's fascinating The Insult and is also reminiscent of the work of Paul Auster. A bizarre premise - in this case, a man left with no memory but an awful lot of money after an accident, who systematically seeks to re-enact actually experienced and/or imagined mundane scenarios - gradually comes to seem artlessly plausible, due to the absence of affect in both the writing and the central character. His abstruse quest for the real in the patently artificial operates as a nice critique of what Jean Baudrillard calls the hyper-real, yet also offers a fascinating parallel with the spiritual meditative practice of "being in the moment" through mindfulness. The book most reminded me of Sebastian Beaumont's Thirteen, the story of a taxi driver who reaches into his own psyche not by obsessively repeating minute actions but by quite literally driving himself into exhaustion. Beaumont's "other world" is less polemical, but more darkly fascinating and plot driven, than McCarthy's. Thirteen is a Remainder with go-faster stripes. The two books have a different feel, and attempt different things, but both come highly recommended.
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Have you ever had a feeling of de ja vu where you wished you could grab that moment, cling on to it and relish its every detail, but no matter how hard you try, it's gone?
The narrator of Tom McCarthy's brilliant `Remainder' feels false and unnatural after recovering from an accident that has left him having to relearn his motor functions and a compensation package of eight-and-a-half million pounds. One evening he is struck by a clear memory of a time he can't specify, which evokes a feeling calm and fluid reality in him. He decides to utilise his newfound wealth in an attempt to recreate that precise moment, complete with the perfect building (which he has designed to his specifications by a set designer) and the neighbours he was conscious of in this flash of recall (played by actors which the narrator calls `re-enactors'). He repeatedly re-enacts his moments in an attempt to regain the feeling he was aware of in that moment of de ja vu. Our hero becomes obsessed with re-enacting: first incidents in which he featured, then incidents he witnessed (where he takes on roles as a `re-enactor'), finally, he creates an event of his own design and, after many rehearsals, puts it into practice in the `real' world, with violent and disastrous consequences and, in a rather neat way, a resolution for the narrator.
McCarthy's protagonist is insane; but sympathetic, cold; yet human. The novel's climax has an almost anti-climactic calm that left me bewildered and satisfied. It was so easy to fall into the mindset of the hero, that I have found myself grasping at moments of de ja vu with a fresh vigour. It strikes me as a book about our perceptions of self, reality... and perhaps narrative. There is such a depth to this novel that it deserves re-reading and I look forward to returning to this moment of enjoyable engrossment again... and probably again...
This novel has a really edgy intelligence to it and it has the smell of cult classic wafting from its binding - read it now, before everyone else does!
The narrator of Tom McCarthy's brilliant `Remainder' feels false and unnatural after recovering from an accident that has left him having to relearn his motor functions and a compensation package of eight-and-a-half million pounds. One evening he is struck by a clear memory of a time he can't specify, which evokes a feeling calm and fluid reality in him. He decides to utilise his newfound wealth in an attempt to recreate that precise moment, complete with the perfect building (which he has designed to his specifications by a set designer) and the neighbours he was conscious of in this flash of recall (played by actors which the narrator calls `re-enactors'). He repeatedly re-enacts his moments in an attempt to regain the feeling he was aware of in that moment of de ja vu. Our hero becomes obsessed with re-enacting: first incidents in which he featured, then incidents he witnessed (where he takes on roles as a `re-enactor'), finally, he creates an event of his own design and, after many rehearsals, puts it into practice in the `real' world, with violent and disastrous consequences and, in a rather neat way, a resolution for the narrator.
McCarthy's protagonist is insane; but sympathetic, cold; yet human. The novel's climax has an almost anti-climactic calm that left me bewildered and satisfied. It was so easy to fall into the mindset of the hero, that I have found myself grasping at moments of de ja vu with a fresh vigour. It strikes me as a book about our perceptions of self, reality... and perhaps narrative. There is such a depth to this novel that it deserves re-reading and I look forward to returning to this moment of enjoyable engrossment again... and probably again...
This novel has a really edgy intelligence to it and it has the smell of cult classic wafting from its binding - read it now, before everyone else does!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Dearnesman
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have never read a book like this one. You cannot get it out of your head and it really does make you start to look at the world differently.
I read this on regular half-hour train journeys and, each time, when I arrived at the destination I didn't want to tear myself away from it. And when I did and finally stepped out into the Railway Station I viewed everyone in a completely different way and began seeing things previously unnoticed. No-one else around me seemed to be taking anything seriously - until I realised that everyone else was behaving normally and it was just me that had been reprogrammed. Another reviewer mentioned that the book `got under their skin' - it does just that. All of a sudden, every action, little task or movement takes on greater import.
The only disappointment was the ending, where the whole bizarreness just got to be a bit too much. But by that time the book had already altered my mind. It was too late for me.
I read this on regular half-hour train journeys and, each time, when I arrived at the destination I didn't want to tear myself away from it. And when I did and finally stepped out into the Railway Station I viewed everyone in a completely different way and began seeing things previously unnoticed. No-one else around me seemed to be taking anything seriously - until I realised that everyone else was behaving normally and it was just me that had been reprogrammed. Another reviewer mentioned that the book `got under their skin' - it does just that. All of a sudden, every action, little task or movement takes on greater import.
The only disappointment was the ending, where the whole bizarreness just got to be a bit too much. But by that time the book had already altered my mind. It was too late for me.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
I only read this for my English literature course
The book arrived before the estimated delivery date, and there were no problems with the seller: but personally I hated this book - it was repetitive and pretentious. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Pen Name
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this book.
An excellent story, one which is out of the ordinary and subtly insightful. Utterly relevant to 'modern' life and written in such a way that at no point does it feel tiresome.
Published 2 months ago by P Lyle-smythe
5.0 out of 5 stars
Play it again, Tom...
Firstly, a word of warning. I loved this novel, and thought it the best new writing I'd encountered in quite some time. You may well hate it, for exactly the same reasons. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Dr. Kenneth W. Douglas
3.0 out of 5 stars
Left me cold
Had an interesting premise and started well but I really felt it failed to deliver by the end.
The main protagonist was neither engaging or likeable. Read more
The main protagonist was neither engaging or likeable. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Simon Rana
1.0 out of 5 stars
Overated
After reading the reviews I was looking forward to an exceptional book. I was ver disappointed and actually gave up reading. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Briggs115
4.0 out of 5 stars
For what purpose indeed?
I knew nothing about this book when I started it. The less you know about it the better. It's an unusual & original book - intriguing, interesting, readable, absorbing, compelling,... Read more
Published 6 months ago by nigeyb
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remainder
"Well f*** off: it's the same book as it was two years ago." Was Tom ("the most galling interviewee in the world") McCarthy's response to the myriad publishers clamouring to... Read more
Published on 6 May 2011 by TomCat
4.0 out of 5 stars
Depends how you read it
Judging by most of the reviews that have already been written for 'Remainder', it seems to be a simple case of you get it or you don't get it, you like it or you don't like it. Read more
Published on 17 April 2011 by tombcandle13
3.0 out of 5 stars
Promises more than it delivers
This first-person account starts intriguingly enough, and draws you in well enough that the first third or half of the book is a page turner. Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2010 by E. D. Costello
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too much of a re-creation
The author uses a lot of oxygen in interviews to hype his anti-traditional, pro-avant garde, bourgeois-bashing stance, but in many ways, Remainder (written by a novelist with a... Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2010 by annwiddecombe
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